Sorry for that. I was trying to hold up a mirror for Niantic, but I based it on your comment.
They want certain kinds of âstuffâ for their database, and have carved out some areas around things that they explicitly do not want to include. Assuming that there is an actual reason behind a rejection, it has to be possible to tie it back to either not matching Acceptance Criteria or violating Rejection Criteria.
I am guessing that the machine-learning may not actually make such a distinction. It might just make a match based upon how strongly certain earmarks in the candidate resemble those in other candidates that have already been resolved.
It is really frustrating that while it seems like everything could be boiled-down to specific codicils in the criteria or a clearly-owned judgement call by The Team, we instead get a message that essentially says âNuh Uh. Guess why?â
I find this really fascinating. I likely attributed more to the ML algorithm than it currently does. But I feel like it has lots of inputs it could use.
Possibly a topic for another thread. But it does have me thinking.
So I know we have 2 appeals available to use for nominations, and each have a 20 day cool down timer after itâs use.
I donât always remember when I activate appeals, so knowing when it will be available is sometimes a hassle.
I think it would be beneficial for appeal button, after use to be visible but transparent to as a indicator thatâs it been use and maybe a (i) info button next to that if clicked reveals the countdown timer until appeal is available again.
Example â19 days 7 hrs 52 seconds until appeal becomes availableâ
The featured page and blue mountains is literally the reason we have survey marker wayspots. The featured page wasnt random and was always pulled from the blue mountains and every week it would change but all they were submitting in blue mountains was survey markers. So every week 3 featured survey markers for a good 4-6months every time you logged in boom survey marker = good. Then appeals came around = boom accepted on appeal.
More things Iâd like Niantic to bring to Wayfarer in 2025 based on other peopleâs awesome past comments:
In app (either wayfarer or game of your choice) to review nominations that you are physically in close proximity to. (This as a âandâ to our existing review system and obviously some places are rural/remote where getting enough people there is impractical & on the reviewer side being able to do the âjobâ remotely without having to travel to the spot is inclusive of those with disabilities. But I would LOVE to get flagged in game or wayfarer app or wayfarer mobile website to get fed nominations based on my exact proximity at that time.
Well this is for the PoGo team but a Wayfarer t-shirt for your avatar. Could be an awesome reward after so many approved nominations as a submitter or so many agreements as a reviewer!
In general terms, I would love to see ongoing improvements in clarity, communication and consistency, many of the same things that have been requested for a long time are still lacking. It feels like easy or obvious improvements or solutions to ongoing issues are regularly ignored. At least make us feel heard, reassure us that you are working on things, give us some specifics, a timescale, something to convince us that you value our input. A proper roadmap would be great!
On the point of âWayfarer Criteriaâ being fed back as a rejection reason. I think the issue for many is that it is so vague and generic, especially for newer users who arenât regulars on the forum. It does very little to explain what is wrong with their submission or what they might do to improve in future, this perhaps highlights a central failing with education on criteria as a whole? The feedback from human reviewers is often useless too.
Better guidance on how the system actually works and proper instruction on how to formulate a good submission would go a long way here. I would really like to see much better systems all round, within the games and on the website, to help submitters and reviewers alike.
As others have mentioned, Iâd love to see a proper curated map of all wayspots, no matter if they appear in games or not. Better communication of criteria, improved onboarding and continuing education as things change and are clarified. Better ways to remove spots that should never have been accepted in the first place, that then encourage others to submit ineligible things. Proper curated showcases, these should be the best of the best, often they are awful submissions that give the wrong impression.
Consistency from all staff members and appeals teams. Better, less threatening or condescending wording in emails and replies to appeals, with actual, useful reasons given for what people have got wrong and how to improve. Many relatively small things that could cut down on a lot of the frustration and disillusionment with the current system.
Or even giving more detailed feedback to the submitter on why you have rejected something that the original submitter is able to see.
I get frustrated so much when I cant give good feedback on why iv had to reject stuff like road signs or generic street furniture. and then i also get frustrated when good nominations that iv submitted get rejected for some nonsense like âPrivate propertyâ when I know for a fact that the submission is nowhere near private property.
This would make rejection appals a lot easier to review and probably reduce in number. as people will have more clarity on why it was orginaly rejected.
Also a generic global map of all POIs that are in the Ninatic Lightship database would massivly help. this would help all reviews know what is in the database and would mean they wouldnt have to sign up to all the games just to check if a POI is already in a game when inishaly submitting a stop.
This! and even after I clarified with Tintino that Niantic did not want people to set their bonus areas there to participate, plenty of people openly did anyway.
I agree with this point. I understood why Niantic did what they did, and I guess it was to see if they could motivate the local players to get involved in Wayfarer around the time of a major event, but I am unsure if it was successful. I think what Niantic could have done is opened up the Wayfarer worldwide, and for those who are in Brazil (assuming it will be default home location) would get boosted rewards over others who participate.
Contribution page grid of totals! With
columns: In Queue, Niantic Voting, Community Voting, Accepted, Rejected.
And rows: Nominations, Photos, Title Edits, Description Edits, Removals.
This would motivate, and reward, contributors. It feels great to see when youâve made, say 100 wayspots. Or if you have 125 approved, you might set a goal to hit 200 by the end of the year. Conversely, if you wonder how many edits you have in-voting, you can filter, but then get frustrated counting 30 by hand.
Sure, I can use a third-party app to do this. But every time my computer or phone dies, I have to reload that third party app on the new device. And itâs really strange for Niantic to omit something so basic, encouraging us to use third-party instead, and not seeming to care that it would improve volunteersâ quality of life. Why not remove all this frustration?
